Release Date: December 12, 1987 Director: Yasuharu Hasebe
Length: 98 minutes Subs were done by Mashhamid
**** The below character info was carried over from the drama recaps as the main five characters were the same, did make some edits though very few.
Main Cast: What a popular long running series this has been in Japan, perhaps it has more of a following than of any other drama/movie franchise! There have been at least three seasons of this drama, a few TV specials plus eight regular movies, the last one just came out a month ago! This film had the title of "Dangerous Cop" which is really the same as the drama so left that same title. Did say there have been eight films but think just the first two have been subbed, of course have the first here and will get to the second very soon. This movie was over the twice the length of a drama episode so made this review a two-parter with the next post of course being part two. The main five characters below each have two screenshots, the top is from the drama and the other is one from this movie.
Hiroshi Tachi as Toshiki Takayama.... You'll see him referred to as Taka often in the screenshots. He's about a 35 year old man who is an investigator of serious crimes and the gangsters go out of their way to avoid him! Takayama has a bit of a 'cool persona' about him and is an ace with guns, he's the partner of Oshita but seems they didn't start working closely together until the first episode. While both are aces with guns their methods also get them in hot water with their superiors but the pair usually come out on top at the end as far as solving cases go. Below is Takayama hopping on a motorcycle, he is an ace rider.
Kyohei Shibata as Yuji Oshita.... About the same age as Takayama but looks younger. During the first episode Oshita blurted out he's got a bit of a shady past and it surprised many he became a sergeant. He knows how to pick a lock and some other methods criminals use, sure we'll find out more as time goes on. Like his new partner Takayama he is quite adept using all guns, unlike his partner Oshita isn't much of a 'people person' as Takayama is the one who often interviews witnesses, criminals or others.
Atsuko Asana as Kaoru Mayama.... Member of the Juvenile Division which shares the same office as the Investigative Unit which Takayama and Oshita are a part of. Karou has gone out to crime scenes with the detectives but they never let her get in on the real action. However she is a tough woman who used to be a regular officer and knows how to use a gun well. Beginning with the fourth season she became goofier than ever which has been annoying.
Toru Nakamura as Toru Machida.... Not a rookie but hasn't been an inspector for all that long. Machida is the best fighter in the unit and also the women swoon over him but he does have a girlfriend which he said in the first show.... that may have been a lie. Think it was for since then Toru has had such a hard time finding girls to date him though he a good looking guy. He does get taken afvantage of too often by Takayama and Oshita.
Shizuo Chujo as Takuzo Kondo.... Chief of the Investigation Unit, smart man but seems to be more concerned on what he'll be having for lunch! But at one time Kondo was feared by the Yokohama gangsters and has been on the force for thirty years. Five years ago before coming chief Kondo had killed a Yakuza thug which is one reason he's so feared. In episode 45 Kudo did shave off his mustache, in the movie he was much ore stern towards Takayama and Oshita.
In the third season the roles of Yoshi and Tanaka have become much larger, will add them in for season four. In the two screenshots below Yoshi is on the left, Tanaka is right next to him.
Main guest stars, there were really just these three. Also making a reappearance was the Juvenile Unit leader Yuko. In the drama she disappeared after the eleventh episode but did have a minor role in this movie. Hideo Murota is an actor I like a lot and have seen many of his movies from the 1970's, 80's and 90's. He also made a guest appearance in episode fifty of the drama but played a different character.
Miyuki Ono as Yuki Midori.... Secretary to Narumi who owns an art gallery. The two met up in NYC where Midori was studying art but realized she had no talent and returned to Yokohama where Narumi hired her. Don't think the two were having an affair and she was unaware of the underhanded dealings Narumi was involved in.
Shun Sugata as Kojiri Hyodo.... He was in many scenes though we didn't see Hyodo too clearly all that often. He had been hired by Narumi to destroy important anti-cancer research the Makamiitu Pharmaceutical company was doing. That Hyodo was successful at but in the process of escaping had killed two police officers. Hyodo had planned on leaving Japan once that caper was done but that plan was thwarted by Takayama and Oshita. Narumi had also given Hyodo an assignment later on to kill Midori!
Previous recaps: There's 51 episodes but they were divided into six seasons, there was no break between them. Season one was episode one to nine, second season was ten through eighteen and this third ran from the nineteenth until the 26th episode. Season four has been completed which is episodes 27 through 35, the last two seasons each had eight episodes. Know there's too many to recaps to read but have the list just in case you do and it's also for me as it's easy to go back and check any post.
Couldn't find a regular trailer for this movie but this short video a partial one and it was promoting the Blue-Ray of the movie.
Above is the poster for the eighth movie that was released last month, below that is a pic of the four major characters at an event for it. If you think they look old it's because they are(!), this film was released 36 1/2 years before this latest one. These days Takayama is 74 in age, Oshita is about to turn 73, Kaoru is 63 and the baby of the bunch Toru will soon be hitting the age of 59. Enough for the present time and let's go way back to 1987 for this film which came out in December of that year and ended up being the fourth most popular movie of 1988 as far as ticket sales went. This was an exciting film but did take a while to get going, the first twenty minutes were passable but to be honest just so-so, the last seventy minutes were so action packed! It may have a been a slight challenge for the writers going from a 45 minute episode to a 95 minute movie which is why it began off a bit sluggish as the story had to be spread out a bit but all in all this turned out to be a superb film.
The next post has the second half of this review and will give my grade and more thoughts in that post. It's been so long since I've done a movie review but would like to take a short break from dramas and do a few more of these. If you viewed any of the 51 drama episodes or read my recaps then you know what to expect, everything is exactly the same which is a good thing. Didn't seem as though we saw as much of the medium sized characters Machida(Toru), Kondo and Kaoru which once again isn't a bad thing as it meant more screen time for the two heroes Takayama and Oshita who were more serious than in the TV drama. There was just one case that took place in this movie and it had to deal with a pharmaceutical company being invaded and their research destroyed but of course much more did take place. Bit of a long intro and let's finally get to what took place, sure I'll think the first 20+ minutes were better once I begin writing about it.
So of course the perp was able to flee to safety, the officers in the other car told Takayama and Oshita they had been chasing this villain from the Nakamitsu Pharmaceutical company. The pair dashed there, already doing some investigating were their colleagues Yoshi and Tanaka. At this company the main researcher Nakano and his assistant Shimada were doing research on preventing cancer, both were killed in the break in. All of their data was destroyed but there was one disc with very important info that was stolen. So it appeared to everyone that the rival of Nakamitsu pulled off this heist and murders but for now that didn't help anyone from the Minato precinct. The Yokohama underground is very frightened of Takayama but he will give many of the gangsters some breaks if they help him with cases. The following day he got a tip on who pulled off that pharmaceutical job, the man is named Hyodo and was currently sitting in a coffee shop. This informer also said Hyodo had plans on leaving Japan that day as he had plane tickets, how did this informer learn all of that? So our 'heroes' rushed to this coffee shop and went right up to Hyodo to arrest him, much easier said than done. Hyodo is a mercenary and a very good one too, he escaped but was soon found in a nearby store. Where he grabbed a woman as a hostage, he told Takayama and Oshita to cuff each other and to throw him the keys. Which the pair did and right after Hyodo fled the scene, there was no way the duo could give chase.
Which is that the rival of Nakamitsu Pharmaceutical, Cosmo Pharmaceutical, had seen their stocks soar after what happened with the Nakamitsu data. A few investors struck it rich with the biggest winner being a man named Narumi who made a profit of three billion yen! So visiting Narumi was next for the pair of investigators, Narumi owned an art gallery where they met him. However their interview didn't pan out at all as Narumi is such a slippery person and just because he made such a huge profit doesn't mean he's guilty of anything. His assistant is a woman named Midori, perhaps they can find out more about Narumi through her. She didn't want to talk with either investigator so that night a stakeout will take place at her apartment. But the pair still had to do these odd cases for Kondo, that evening they had been assigned to find out some info about pickpocketing Hobos! But just Oshita did and you can see him above so it was just Takayama on the case by himself. That's him spying on Midori in the second to last screenshot, there are some fringe benefits being an investigator! The next morning the pair did trail Midori to Narita airport, she was prepared to fly to Washington but why? Fairly sure for her safety but I didn't feel Midori was involved in any of the shady activities her boss Narumi had been doing.
Think that Takayama and Oshita also felt Midori's life was in danger but as mentioned it didn't appear she knew much about Narumi's illegal affairs. Takayama took Midori to an abandoned mining site to hide out for a while, meanwhile Oshita paid a visit to Narumi. Who once again didn't reveal anything and think Oshita knew he wouldn't, it was actually a ploy to draw out Hyodo. For Oshita told Narumi he and Takayama had intercepted Midori at the airport, she's safely hidden away and Oshita said he will be going there after leaving Narumi's office. So of course once Oshita left he was trailed to the mining site by Hyodo, his first act which you can see above was to explode their police car! Hyodo then fired a small rocket into the building where Midori was hidden in, you would want Hyodo on your side in a battle and in the confusion he was able to abduct Midori. Hyodo is such a sly man, outside he had left a rifle for Takayama or Oshita to pick up. But in a life saver Takayama noticed the rifle was sitting on a mine(!), if it was picked up him and his partner would be blown to smithereens! However Hyodo was outnumbered two to one, he was carrying a passed out Midori and that made him easy to catch. So Hyodo dropped the unhurt Midori and fled away but in pursuit was Takayama, Hyodo hijacked a dump truck while Takayama jumped on a nearby motorcycle.
Takayama soon caught up to Hyodo and jumped on the back of the truck. But it being a dump truck meant the back could lift up, that's what Hyodo did with it and Takayama came sliding off though wasn't injured. That scene is right above and by now we're at about the forty minute mark. Once again the Minato chief Kondo was fuming at Takayama and Oshita, especially because he had ordered them off the case. But if they didn't do what they did Midori would have been killed, she's currently safe at the Minato station. She didn't want to be interviewed by Takayama and/or Oshita, even though they saved her life she still didn't trust them. But better at interrogating are Yoshi and Tanaka, they spent an entire night interviewing Midori but with zero results in finding out info about Narumi and she claimed not to know who Hyodo was. Which was true and still on the loose is Hyodo, he hasn't finished the job of killing Midori for Narumi. Still not sure why he wants his secretary killed so badly, it doesn't appear Midori knows enough about Narumi to send him to prison. So Midori is still the target of Hyodo, if she's safe at the Minato station how can he grab her? Besides being an ace mercenary Hyodo is quite intelligent, who we hadn't seen much of up until now is the Juvenile Unit investigator Karou. She's below in the middle and and is about to be targeted by Hyodo!!!!
Hyodo had been parked in a van, he contacted Takayama via a radio and the pair agreed to the hostage exchange. Which went smoothly, Kaoru wasn't hurt and was reunited with her supervisor Yuko. Midori entered the back of the van, Takayama, Oshita and the rest of their team waited a few minutes to see what Hyodo would do before storming the van. But nothing took place, when the young investigator Machida ambled by the van he noticed it was empty!!!! The troops then stormed the van, to their amazement Hyodo had parked over a manhole, had made a hole in the van's floor and escaped that way with Midori! What an ingenious plan by Hyodo, many of the Minato squad scrambled down to the sewer trails but Hyodo was nowhere to be found. However he did leave them a present which was an explosive, the water caught fire as you can see above. No one was killed but Tanaka and one other officer were severely burned, that was an exciting scene and by now the movie was in full swing! So this concludes this part one of the movie review, of course the next post has part two and if you've read this far hope you read the conclusion.
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